The Federal Communications Commission has approved the merger of The E.W. Scripps Co. and Journal Communications and authorized the transfer of control of Milwaukee-based Journal’s television and radio station licenses to Cincinnati-based Scripps.
The companies announced in July that they will merge their broadcast operations and spin off and then merge their newspapers, creating two focused and separately traded public companies.
The merged broadcast and digital media company, based in Cincinnati, will retain The E.W. Scripps Company name, and the Scripps family shareholders will continue to have voting control. The company will have approximately 4,000 employees across its television, radio and digital media operations and is expected to have annual revenue of more than $800 million.
The newspaper company will be called Journal Media Group and will combine Scripps’ daily newspapers, community publications and related digital products in 13 markets with Journal Communications’ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin community publications and affiliated digital products. The company, with expected annual revenue of more than $500 million and approximately 3,600 employees, will be headquartered in Milwaukee.
The merger still needs to be approved by the companies’ shareholders, and is expected to close in the first half of 2015.
